A Crime By Existing
by WingDawn
Summary: Special Agent Annabeth Chase was ready to take a nice, long vacation from work. But fate had other plans. Now, because of possessing absolutely zero resistance against her half-brother's puppy-dog eyes and her partner's enthusiasm for a new case, she's stuck dealing with the annoyingly attractive and friendly Detective Jackson. He had to go ahead and be smart and cooperative too.
1. Annabeth Is Coerced Into A Case

Annabeth carefully shut the door and leaned back against it. She stared at the file in her hands and sighed.

Another case. She'd been looking forward to a long vacation after the last one. But Malcolm had begged her, pulling off a particularly spectacular case of puppy eyes while doing so. And Thalia had seemed so excited to get back to work.

How could she refuse those two together? She had taken the case off Malcolm's hands.

Somebody tried to open the door behind her and shoved it so hard she went flying towards her desk. Thalia entered their joint office.

"Sorry 'bout that. Come on, are you still moping? This one is going to be _so_ tough," She said gleefully.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly, is that a good thing?"

"Don't start with me, Annie. You know you like those the best." Thalia pointed a finger at her accusingly.

"Thalia," She warned.

"Sorry, _Annabeth_," Thalia said, voice mockingly sweet. She grabbed a file similar to the one Annabeth had in her hands from her desk. "So, what's the story?"

Annabeth frowned. "How did you know it was going to be tough if you haven't read the file?" She asked.

"Malcolm said so." Thalia waved her hand in the air. "Anyway, have you started it yet?"

Annabeth felt a flash of excitement. If Malcolm had thought it was going to be tough, then it certainly would be. After all, he was one of their best.

"No, I was just starting to," She answered Thalia. "You should too."

Thalia sat down on the chair behind her own desk. She leaned back, balancing the chair precariously on two of its legs.

"Just read it out loud."

"The height of your laziness astounds me." Annabeth told her wryly.

She opened up Malcolm's report and began to read out loud.

The case was simple and straightforward. Along with being absolutely disgusting.

Basically, some sick psychopath had decided that this was the year he/she was going to kidnap innocent children, strangle them and leave their bodies where more innocent children could find them.

Well, only one body had been found. Malcolm had originally been assigned to the case when it was just kidnapping. Then the body of the first girl- Native American, aged 10 -had been found. All 4 children were of different ethnicities and all of them were girls ranging between the ages of 8-13. The body of the first victim had turned up last week and had showed no signs of sexual assault.

Annabeth continued to read out loud, "….. Detective Jackson sugge-"

Thalia suddenly cut her off by falling to the ground with her chair, with a short shriek.

"Thalia?" She leaned forward, trying to see over her and Thalia's desks. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Came her voice from the floor. She stood up and brushed off her jeans. "Did you say Detective Jackson?"

Annabeth glanced back at the file open on her desk, a little perplexed. "Um, yeah?"

"Does it say his full name any where?" Thalia asked excitedly.

She scanned the document quickly. "No, I do- wait, here it is. It says 'Per-"

Thalia cut her off with a shout of glee.

"Thalia, what-" Annabeth started, but Thalia waved a hand at her to wait. She picked up her phone and started dialing. Annabeth got up and walked to where she was standing. She leaned close to Thalia's ear, trying to hear the other end.

Whoever was on the other side must have picked up because Thalia started speaking. "Dude, we're going to be working together!"

There was pause and then a lot of chatter that Annabeth couldn't understand from the phone. Thalia was grinning from ear-to-ear. She obviously understood what the other person was saying. "Yeah, I know. Finally."

She gave up on trying to understand both ends of the conversation and went back to her desk. Thalia finished off her call a minute later with a "See you tomorrow 'cuz."

"So?"

"We're going to be working with my cousin. We've been waiting for this day since we both ended up working in New York. Ah, the fights, the arguments, the disagreements coming our way." Thalia sighed happily, as though news of potential bloodshed between the two cousins was the best thing that had happened to her all week.

Annabeth shook her head at her. "Let's at least try to finish this today so we can get out on the field tomorrow."

Thalia waved a hand at her. "Continue." And so Annabeth did.


	2. Annabeth Meets, Likes and Hates Percy

Contrary to popular belief, Annabeth was not a morning person. So when she had to call Thalia at _fucking four in the morning_, _God why don't these murderers ever think of the time _she wasn't particularly happy about it either.  
On picking up the phone, Thalia honest-to-God_ growled _at her. Once Annabeth explained to her that another girl's body- Asian, aged 7- had been found, Thalia grunted out a, "Fine, I'll be ready in 10," and cut the call. She was still grumbling when Annabeth picked her up.

By the time they arrived on the scene Annabeth's bad mood had grown, helped along by Thalia's complaints, the cold weather and the lack of coffee that Thalia had insisted they didn't need to stop for on the way.

Annabeth lifted up the yellow tape and crossed under it. She let it go instantly after, hoping it would bounce back and hit Thalia. It would serve her right. She didn't turn to look if it did, it wasn't needed. The sudden _smack _and "Hey!" told her so.

She was surprised when a guy, who was passing by and wearing a NYPD badge, didn't ask them for identification. Instead, without so much of a 'Hello, you guys must be the FBI,' he directed them to another beefy-looking African American guy. He barely glanced up when they approached him and instead chose to frown deeply at the piece of paper in his hands.

"Thalia," He nodded towards Annabeth's partner who returned with a "Beckendorf." She gestured towards Annabeth. "This is Special Agent Chase, my partner," she said.

"Nice to meet you. Percy's over there," He responded, pointing towards a congregation of people, circled around something on the ground.

Annabeth figured that must be the body of the victim.

"Thanks," Thalia said, offering him a small smile and started walking towards the body. Annabeth muttered a quick, "Nice to meet you too," to Beckendorf and joined her. Just because she was grumpy doesn't mean she'd forgotten her manners.

She looked around. The neighbourhood wasn't bad, really and maybe that had to do something with why the body was buried here. Or maybe it was just convenient.

A movement from someone in the congregation drew her gaze back to the scene. A man with extremely, _extremely _messy black hair had stoop up, presumably from where he was crouching next to the body. He must've noticed them coming because he was looking right at them. She took a moment to look him over and assess him. Gun by his side. Hands holding two cups of coffee. Lithe body, not really weak. Could win against her in hand-to-hand combat? Doubtful but possible. If she was completely focused on her task, she could possibly, _probably_ know more than this but she was a little sidetracked right now. Yes, she was an ass-kicking badass highly intelligent FBI agent but she's also a woman in her 20s. She's allowed to look and appreciate. His face broke into a smile and maybe Annabeth forgot to breathe for a second. It wasn't a smile kind of smile, okay? It was one of those full-power ahead, reaching-the-eyes kind of smile. His eyes were suspiciously beautiful. More of a sea-green or green-green. And God, she was starting to sound like a pathetic teen romance novel.

She looked towards Thalia and noticed a smile on her face too; mirroring the one the mysterious guy was still aiming their way. Her brain kicked in and she realized he was probably Thalia's cousin.

It only took moments for him to reach them. He hugged Thalia awkwardly, trying to keep his cups of coffee from falling over.

Thalia was already talking. "Oh my God, I haven't seen you in so long even though we live in the same city and you never have time to visit and I don't even know where you live and I miss your mom and her amazing cookies and Paul's blueberry muffins and your dad's crazy stories which are so much better than my dad's 'cause he always exaggerates you goddamn idiot._"_

Percy (she remembered the name from the file) pulled back with a sheepish smile. "Sorry?" He offered meekly. Annabeth wondered how long it would take her to build a resistance against a certain pair of wide, bright green eyes.

Thalia cuffed him on the head, smiling fondly. She turned to Annabeth.

"My dear best friend, meet my moronic younger cousin brother Percy." She turned back towards Percy. "Moronic younger brother, meet badass and very dear best friend, Annabeth." She gestured towards Annabeth with a dramatic flourish.

Percy seemed to freeze for a moment before mock glaring at Thalia. He held out a hand for her to shake. "Hey."

Annabeth took it. "Hello." She shook it for a few seconds before letting it go.

She took another second to look him over, trying to see anything she missed before. He wore simple blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt and a leather jacket. With his all-over-the place hair he looked more like the leader of a bike gang that gave legitimate candy to little kids than a detective.

Somewhere between all the talking, Percy had given one of the coffees to Thalia. _That's_ why she didn't want to stop. Thalia had probably called him while she was getting dressed to bring her coffee. Annabeth's previous foul mood returned. Wasn't she entitled to her own coffee fix? She scowled.

"Thalia!" A male voice shouted. It came from the group from which Percy had detached himself a minute ago.

Thalia obviously recognized the voice because she bounded over with an equally loud, "Grover!"

Percy turned to Annabeth, a little awkward without Thalia and held out his coffee. "Thalia told me how you liked it."

Her foul mood lessened greatly as she took the steaming cup from him. She was able to stop herself from letting out a moan but she was apparently unsuccessful in stopping any kind of noise from escaping, judging from Percy's sudden red cheeks.

"Oh my God, thank you so much."

'No problem. You definitely looked like you needed it. Shit, I didn't mean you looked bad or anything- I just- you looked-I'm sorry-I-"

Annabeth cut him off with an amused smile. "Percy, it's okay."

He offered her a grin of his own. "Sorry, my brain doesn't really work that well so early in the morning."

Good-looking, friendly _and _good coffee-bringer. Annabeth immediately liked him. Which is why, she immediately distrusted him and wanted nothing to do with him.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Bill Cipher112: I updated! Sorry I took a few days, I was reading The Maze Runner. Good book. But still: update, see?**

**pertemis for eternity: Thank you!**


End file.
